


Checking In

by cameran923



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Friendship, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23142460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cameran923/pseuds/cameran923
Summary: High School AU one-shot. Couldn't get the metaphor that Yasha seemed like the new kid in school who befriends Molly on her first day and then somehow ends up being a part of a crazy friend group known as the Mighty Nine. Mentions of Yasha/Beau, Beau/Jester, Yasha/Zuala, but nothing is explicit.No Beta.
Kudos: 18





	Checking In

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfiction I have ever written (but certainly not the first I have read). I was laying in bed one night and could NOT get this idea out of my head until I wrote it down. So I wrote it down. All mistakes are my own.

Yasha is like that friend that is the new kid at school who happens to sit next to Molly in her first period English class and he introduces himself and is nice to her. When it comes to lunch Yasha sits at a table by herself and Molly comes up and asks if he can sit with her and Yasha says okay because no one has ever asked her that before. It’s nice for a few minutes to have a friend, but of course it ends when promptly and without question a loud boisterous collection of misfits sit and continue to yell and laugh over each other. Yasha signs because it looks like things will be the same here and she’s going to be by herself all over again. True Molly makes sure to include her in conversation, but she knows how this goes. 

But as everyone gets up to leave, Jester looks over her shoulder and asks if Yasha is coming, confused why she’s even still sitting there. The next day Jester and Nott interrogate her and Yasha kind of likes it because people don’t often ask her questions and so that’s nice.

That’s how Yasha finds herself standing in the corner of Jester’s basement while they have a “rager” which apparently is just Beau and Nott getting drunk on wine coolers while they play video games every Friday night. Sure, she doesn’t feel a part of their group, but she feels like she could be one day. Beau keeps looking over and “subtly” flexing and talking loudly to Fjord about her workout regiment that Fjord is pointedly ignoring, focusing intently on the Mario Kart race that he currently is in fourth place in. Caleb, Nott and Jester are also playing, each focused, except Nott who is drunk and just cheering on Caleb as loudly as possible. Jester wins, because Jester always wins. 

At lunch they still talk over each other and are loud and laugh, but Molly still makes sure to check in on her and now sometimes Beau and Jester do too, she also knows some of the inside jokes, which she never thought she would have again. It’s nice, or at least it’s getting there. 

On one Friday night she ends up on the couch with a Caleb who is either wasted and pretending to be sober or sober and pretending to be wasted. They end up connecting over the pain of death and loss, him having lost his parents in a house fire when he was young. He now lives with his uncle, who is abusive, but Yasha doesn’t know if Caleb is ready to admit that yet. Yasha confides that she lost her ex girlfriend in a car accident that she was driving, and Caleb whispers that he was the one who left the oven on. 

After that Caleb checks on her too. 

But then Molly graduates and goes to college and over the summer Yasha runs into her old friends and they are inticing, or at least they remind her of Zuala which is nice in a fucked up way. But then Obann says Zuala deserved it and Yasha beats him into a bloody pulp right before school starts. It’s Beau who takes her off of him and she ends up elbowing Beau and throwing a few more hits that land on Beau before she manages to snap out of her rage and calm down. She apologizes profusely and Beau says its okay, but the blood leaking from her nose makes it hard for Yasha to believe her.

At lunch, they have all new jokes from the summer that Yasha missed and now Beau is glancing at Jester while flexing and without Molly it feels like she’s all alone again, but Caleb and Jester and Beau still check on her and Fjord sits next to her in their Trig class and he’s talking a little differently and Yasha can’t tell which voice was more authentic. However, she understands the need for a mask. 

Nott now glares at her and makes passive aggressive jabs about Yasha being bad. Even though everyone else defends her, Yasha finds comfort in Nott’s accusations, because at least she understands being the bad guy. That’s when Yasha realizes that this was Nott’s way of checking in on Yasha all along. 

Caduceus, who has been there for a while now, has really cemented himself into the group and his calm voice of reason has matured the group. Yasha knows that Cad isn’t a replacement for Molly, but in a way it feels like that, he’s a rock for her to rely on. 

Somewhere along the way Yasha realizes that they aren’t just checking on her, she’s also checking on them. She’s checking on Beau who is running herself as hard as she can for the track team and studying for hours to keep her grades up. Beau is always tired, but she needs a scholarship so she can go to college. Her parents may be rich, but that doesn’t mean their gay daughter can have any of their money. 

She’s checking on Caleb who “likes sleeping on Nott’s couch” but really doesn’t have anywhere else to sleep. As valedictorian he has been accepted to any school he wants to go to, but even with scholarships its not like he can pay for rent or food, so he’s not sure where he will end up, but Yasha hopes he will go to school, because money always finds a way. 

She checks on Fjord who doesn’t even know who he is and who has average grades and average money and average looks. But he is so loyal and charming and trying to do the right thing that Yasha can’t help but be proud of him when he gets into State.

She checks on Jester who is always so happy and excitable and eats her body weight in sugar. But she is also so lonely and and sheltered, that Yasha can only see her as brave and strong. Jester probably won’t go to college, she didn’t even apply, but her and Beau are already talking about renting an apartment off campus and living together next year. Jester always says Yasha can live with them and Beau agrees and Yasha doesn’t know if she will take them up on that.

She checks on Nott who is surprisingly good at science and part of the science team with Caleb and Beau. They come in third at the state championship, which upsets Nott, because of course it does, but it’s a major accomplishment and Nott gets accepted into a science program and now she spends all of her time trying to convince Caleb to live with her in her dorm, that she can sneak him in. Yasha says he should go, that it would be fun and she knows that Jester and Beau will let him sleep on their couch. 

She checks on Cad who hasn’t even thought of going to college. Who honestly didn’t have to complete high school, because he is just going to follow in his family's footsteps and join the family business. They grow and sell organic fruits, vegetables, granola, essential oils and are most known for their teas. Jester helped implement a small bakery that uses their products in the back of the shop that is taking off. But, State is only a couple of hours away and someone has to go to the city to pick up certain goods for the store and Caduceus has already volunteered to go next year. 

Yasha feels like she finally has friends and it was a nice thing to have for a year, but she knows when they all move she will be stuck here. She doesn’t have the grades to get into state and she can’t afford it even if she does get in. But Jester shows her a brochure for a smaller community college that is the same city as State and she only needs a 2.0 to get in, which means she only needs to pass her Trig class. Fjord helps her study at first, but when Beau and Caleb here she is struggling they help as well and now instead of Friday night “ragers” it is Friday night study sessions at the library. And when she gets a 78 on her final they all cheer like its their own success. 

Yasha cries when she gets the official acceptance letter. She knows it isn’t ivy league or even state, but it is hers and it has been a long time since something has been hers. 

Graduation day is bittersweet. She is proud of all her friends and of herself, but it makes her think of Zuala and how she never had the chance to make it this far. But the sadness feels like a good one, one that makes her feel stronger and like she’s moving on. 

By the end of the summer Yasha packs all of her belongings into two suitcases and packs them into Fjord’s car and this group she thought she would never have, let alone keep after graduation all load up in their cars and take one more lap around the highschool parking lot before heading off to bigger and better things but still together and Yasha has never been happier in her whole life.


End file.
